N.T. Wright on the Bible and Tomorrow's World

What we desperately need, if we are to pursue a biblical, Christian and indeed Anglican mission in the postmodern world, is the Spirit of Truth. There is no time to develop this further, but it is vital to say this one thing. We have got so used to the postmodern sneer that any truth-claim is instantly suspect. And at that point many Christians have lurched back to the apparent safety of a modernist claim: conservative modernists claim that they can simply look up truth in the Bible, without realising what sort of book it is, while radical modernists claim they find truth in today’s science, without realising what sort of a thing that is either. But we cannot go back; we have to go on; and the Spirit of Truth, often invoked in favour of any and every innovation in the church, is actually at work when we live within the great story, the love story, God’s love-story, and become in turn agents, missional agents, of that story in the world. Truth is not something we possess and put in our pockets, because truth is grounded in the goodness of creation, the promise of redemption for that creation, and the vocation of human beings to speak God’s word both of naming the original creation and of working for new creation – the word, in other words, of mission. The Spirit of Truth is given so that, living within the great biblical story, we can engage in those tasks.

Article available here.

Authority

A word from an outsider looking into a parent's business...

The Anglican community wrapped up its once every 10 years meeting "Lambeth" the other day with no new resolution on the issues threatening to split the church. (Mainly the issue of how to interpret scripture is the heart of the matter...not same-sex marriage or same-sex attraction relationship among bishops.)

Now I know this is an outsider opinion, but it might be one that is helpful. The problem with all this is not that the Anglican Communion differs theologically. The problem to put it bluntly is that the "member churches" of the Anglican Communion DON'T SUBMIT TO ANY AUTHORITY. They all do what they want to do. The Episcopal Church does what it wants to do, the Church of England does what it wants to do, the Anglican Church of Africa does what it wants to do. Even some LOCAL PARISHES do what they want to do. Some don't ordain women, some do. Some don't ordain homosexual people, some do. There is no authority. There is no central body. Even the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, does not have any real authority. And from what I can tell part of the Anglican DNA is to be resistant to authority. This part of the DNA now threatens the fragile communion.

So here is a small suggestion from a United Methodist...
Find some sort of central authority. When we are ordained we asked if we will UPHOLD the Discipline. This is a very very serious question. Our Book of Discipline and our General Conference are the ultimate bearers of authority in the United Methodist Church. Here is the point: I can disagree at times with the Book of Discipline, but I will always uphold it. I can advocate for changing parts of the Book of Discipline and vote towards this, but I will always uphold it. I can disagree with my fellow clergy on theological points, but we always realize that the ultimate authority in our denomination is not us. The Book of Discipline as set and reset by the General Conference good or bad has authority over those who call themselves Methodist. It is the reason the Methodist denomination contains a wide variety of voices and manages to hold all those voices together.

So Anglican Communion, what is your authority? What binds you together? What allows for differing voices but also has final say? Maybe this new Anglican Covenant will do those things, but it will only do those things if it brings everyone on board.

My fear is there isn't one.

Owning Church, Prayer, and Faith

I am a big believer in open source. I believe the future is open source. I use open source. I support open source. The Episcopal Church even with all its flaws has an open source prayer book (The Book of Common Prayer) well before the phrase "open source" came into existence. I have had countless arguments about the need for our own Methodist liturgy to be made open source. After all liturgy means "work of the people" not "work of this one publishing house and now you must bow before them." But it something that happens gradually over time and I will continue pushing.

Time Magazine, however, published a great article about "Who Owns That Prayer?" It specifically talks about the Serenity prayer attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr, but it also adds commentary at the bottom of the article about how things have changed in the modern world.

Stephen Prothero, the head of the religion department at Boston University, says that the controversies would not have made the front page (or the front papyrus) in the past. One reason for this is that the concept of ownership of intellectual property is only a few hundred years old. The other is that the real author of pious art - whether literary or artistic - used to be considered to be God, who may require fear, awe or compassion, but not royalties.

Prothero brings up what is perhaps the foremost example of this kind of tolerance. Most modern critics regard the Gospels of the new Testament as being mutually dependent. "Did Luke rip off Mark?" he asks. "Probably." That is to say, Luke probably incorporated Mark's gospel into his own. Did it matter? Certainly not to the early Christians, who put four different and arguably contradictory accounts in their Bible. "Piety," notes Prothero, "trumped authorship." Besides, the real author reigned in heaven.

So when will we return to a time when piety once again trumps authorship? After all isn't everything we have a gift?

Long Time, No Post

Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile. Still transitioning through a move. I am now located at Asbury UMC in Lafayette, LA. This move more than any other I have made has been a difficult one. Just getting settled in to our parsonage is still taking time, and I have been a lot busier at work.

Once we get fully settled I hope to be able to blog more about life, faith, and everything else.

YouTube Friday

Worst Movie...EVER!

DO not bother with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The movie is utter junk. Without giving information away in case you want to see this junk, here are a FEW of the MANY issues in the movie:

• Improbable stunts. Sure Indy movies are way over the top on action, but this movie starts with Indy surviving a NUCLEAR explosion in a REFRIGERATOR. Really? Being launched 3 miles in a refrigerator and living??? Try that one Mythbusters!
• Bad casting. Poor decisions cost them. Shia Lebouf as some super kid? Cate Blanchette as some crazy USSR scientist trying to rule the world?
• And the number 1 thing wrong with the movie by far: Terrible RECYCLED storylines. Apparently, Spielberg and co. think they can rehash Close Encounters of a Third Kind, E.T., War of the Worlds and no one will notice. Its bad when at one point in the movie I wondered aloud if we were watching an Indy movie or one of Spielberg's Alien films.

Do yourself a favor RENT "The Last Crusade" and pretend this movie never happened.

Missional Churches Across Denominations

Or hanging out with the Presbyterians (and MCC)

 

I have been at Columbia Theological Seminary's 2008 Thompson Scholar Program on the Missional Church this week, and it has been a journey.

Lessons Learned So far...

• Stories are good things. God's story is a great thing. People's stories are wonderful gifts that have been given and received with much delight and enjoyment. I am convinced that we need to do more in the area of living in, through, and with all these stories.
• Incarnational living is harder than it seems. Its easy to discuss the incarnation of Christ, but when it comes to daily living...well you know.
• I believe that in our community that we can see glimpses of the Kingdom of God manifesting itself in the world around us. This is VERY important. It gives me hope that there is light still shining and the darkness does NOT overcome it.
• Ephesians 2 and John 17 are essential in the Post-Modern world.
• Continue to share food, drink, laughs, and love with those around you and the details of the Gospel, Faith, Life, and other stuff will work itself out.

 

Pax

Four Mentors in the Post-Modern World

Tim Keel named four people that have been very influential on this pilgrimage into the Post-Modern world.

 

Stanley Hauerwas - Ethics

 

Lesslie Newbigin - Mission

 

N.T. Wright - New Testament

 

Walter Brueggemann - Old Testament

 

I can think of one more for me anyway:

 

Joan Chittister - Spirituality

 

Any others come to mind?

YouTube Friday

Borrowed Time on Borrowed Dimes

One of my favorite columnists and authors is Thomas L. Friedman. He clearly has a pulse on what is happening in the world and finds a way to articulate it in ways that strike home. In one of his first articles back since returning from a book writing sabbatical, he talks about our current state of affairs in the United States.

We are not as powerful as we used to be because over the past three decades, the Asian values of our parents’ generation — work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means — have given way to subprime values: “You can have the American dream — a house — with no money down and no payments for two years.”

Ouch, sometimes the truth hurts. He discusses at length that we have mortgaged our future for nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan. So what is left for us now? Friedman offers this:

Who will tell the people? We are not who we think we are. We are living on borrowed time and borrowed dimes. We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work on our country.

I don’t know if Barack Obama can lead that, but the notion that the idealism he has inspired in so many young people doesn’t matter is dead wrong. “Of course, hope alone is not enough,” says Tim Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics, “but it’s not trivial. It’s not trivial to inspire people to want to get up and do something with someone else.”

It is especially not trivial now, because millions of Americans are dying to be enlisted — enlisted to fix education, enlisted to research renewable energy, enlisted to repair our infrastructure, enlisted to help others. Look at the kids lining up to join Teach for America. They want our country to matter again. They want it to be about building wealth and dignity — big profits and big purposes. When we just do one, we are less than the sum of our parts. When we do both, said Shriver, “no one can touch us.”

Maybe someone needs to tell us as Christians the same things. We are not who we think we are. We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work through our faith. I believe we all want to be a part of something great. We all want to matter.

Narrative or Formula

One of the more interesting concepts that Tim Keel offers is that we often fail to read the Bible as a Narrative. Most of us tend to read the Bible as a Formula (This plus That equals This which then trumps That). He (and I) believe this comes from an emphasis on Paul. We have captured the Pauline Epistles in this Greek thought pattern formula, so that in order to understand them we must first become Greek thinkers. Think of how we do missions. We must first teach Greek thought patterns in order to talk about God.

 

The Hebrew people (including Jesus) talked about God in a different way. They told stories. When someone asked why something was the way it was, they would share a story about God or about people. These narratives would contain many different layers of meaning captured within the words. There was no story that said do this and get that. I believe that is how the Pharisees taught.

 

So my question is: Are we still offering concise formula or are we offering an expanding narrative?

O Lord, Open our Lips

And we shall declare your praise.

 

Praise to God for Hope.

Praise to God for understanding Suffering and Pain through Jesus Christ.

Praise to God for providing counsel and comfort through the Holy Spirit.

Praise to God for God's ways being far beyond our ways.

Praise to God for the Lord's mercy and grace which continues to sustain us.

Praise to God for Hope.

 

Amen